DAY 38 FROM SOUTH TO NORTH - TOP END (NORTHERN TERRITORY) TRIP

1 June 2010

DARWIN - LITCHFIELD

It is the first day of winter and believe it or not this morning the air felt fresh. Humidity was gone. Actually with all that was happening yesterday we didn’t notice the weather but the humidity was gone already yesterday. It looks like the dry season has come.

Today I felt more in shock about yesterday’s events than yesterday. I just have to accept that I am here not down south and there is nothing I can do to help either family or in relation to the break in.

So in the little Toyota Yaris that we hired we headed for Litchfield National Park. There is a catch with hiring cars here. You cannot get one with unlimited kilometers and you cannot go on dirt roads even if you hire a 4WD. So you are very limited in where you can go. It is also very different travelling along the savanah woodlands in a little car as opposed to our high Oka. In the Oka I feel I can absorb what I am seeing, take in the variation in the environment as we travel through it. Sitting low I felt like everything was flitting past.  I couldn’t see into the environment – I was just catching an edge of it.

After seeing photos of Litchfield I was expecting it to be lush tropical looking along the way and not savanah country. Whilst the vegetation did change somewhat along the road, except at the waterholes, it was mainly savanah woodlands.

The cathedral termite mounds were huge – 5-6 metres tall.  Hubby thinks I am obsessed with these termite mounds.

The magnetic termite mounds were generally a greyer colour and not so tall but just as captivating.

The highlight was seeing Wangi Falls.  They were just so spectacular and the water was coming down with great force.

We walked to the treetop lookout through tall tropical vegetation.

A pity you couldn’t go for a swim in the pool in front of the falls.

Buley Rockhole was so inviting for a swim. We had a look at it on the way up to Wangi and then stopped to sit in the water here on the way back.

All the falls are so different. The walk up to Tolmer Falls was interesting.

The view over the trees into the distant flat lowlands was in contrast with Litchfield surrounds.

I was sorry we could not get to the Lost City as it was a dirt track to get there and our rental could not go along it. I am curious what sort of rocks they would be as on the walk to Tolmer Falls, not that far from the Lost City there were some very interesting pinkish rocks.

Florence Falls was different again. Not as spectacular as Wangi but a nice, restful place.

At Batchelor I had the chance to visit the butterfly farm.

Turtles sunbaked

as butterflies flitted around. It was just so serene and beautiful.

On the way back we could see burn offs starting. As soon as the wet is over they burn off before the dry season gets fully underway.